Travel

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Surprise! You are Ready to Rearrange

“Sometimes our lives have to be completely shaken up, changed and rearranged to relocate us to the place we’re meant to be.”

I was shocked to realize that I ready was to rearrange my life, shaking it up like a red, 1975 Etch A Sketch- selling our house and moving to another city.

Whether you are resetting your priorities, refocusing your efforts, or completely changing your home address, change and moving are not for the light-hearted.  Change is hard and that is why most people don’t attempt it.  Leaving your comfort zone is painful and that explains why so many remain like the frog in the proverbial boiling pot. It often seems easier to do nothing than it is to take a step into the scary unknown.

But I am here to tell you, not changing or relocating may result in just as much pain and anguish in the long run (look to history books for numerous examples of this- 1939 Germany comes to mind).  

My recent shakeup involves two major areas of my life- my job and my home.  The catalyst was a down-sizing event at my employer of ten years and then the retrospective conclusion that my home was located in a place where I wasn’t meant to be.  It just didn’t feel right anymore, and I knew that a drastic change was needed.  So, I resigned from my dead-end contract job and my family put our house up for sale.  The house got an offer in 2 days with a short 3-week close date.  Wow was that shaking things up!  

The rearrangement continues as I sit in a coffee shop called the Ground Shaker and write this blog.  I am in the city of Surprise, AZ where we are fortune to be staying at the house of good friends who are snowbirds who flew to Colorado for the summer.  

So now I find myself jobless and homeless with all of my worldly belongings (minus my clothes, bikes, and Apple devices) in a storage locker in Prescott, AZ.   

Moving is one of the most stressful and tiring experiences and this is the 24th time I’ve done it in the past 35 years.  All of my immediate family lives in the same county where I was born and raised and I sometimes wonder how my life would have turned out if I had never left for my first Army duty station after college.  A rolling stone may never gather moss but it also doesn’t establish strong and deep roots.  I do miss seeing my sister, brothers, cousins, nieces and nephews for the holidays and important life events. I miss and long for the adventures and trips down the shore with my east coast friends.

Relocating is all very unsettling and disconcerting but it helps when you know that you are doing it for a good reason.  Keeping a positive future state clear in your mind is one of the keys to reducing the pain of the change.  Visualization of a better place where I am meant to be is helping me cope with the waterfall of stress and angst. 

The ideas and images of a new house in a smaller, cooler town in the mountains are calming and soothing to the soul.  I’m hoping for that the higher altitude will bring better attitudes (or, to be more grammatically correct, higher elevations will bring positive revelations).  Less heat, more trees and lakes- that is what I need to keep my sights on- not this temporary sense of dread and unease. 

And so here I am in Surprise Limbo, experiencing the thrill of having my life completely shaken up, changed, and rearranged to enable me to relocate to the place I’m meant to be.

Onward and upward!

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Does anybody really know what time it is?

I’m in a funky, themed house with dozens of clocks- all standing (or tilting) still with different times.

I even wrote on the wall in the kitchen- “Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care?” These lines are from a great song by the band Chicago and it got me thinking. Is there any one thing that two humans can agree upon? Is the time on the clock the one thing that we are on the same page about?

Some of my friends are always early while others are always late. Why is that?

Could it be that the perception of time is unique to each individual mind?

Some people seem to appreciate and value time more than others. Some people are obsessive about time while others pay it no mind.

The one thing that is common to the majority of humans is that we don’t know when our time on this planet is up. If we all are on a “lifespan timer” or have a known expiration date (like in the movie Logan’s Run) , we would be better off ? Animals don’t be to care about this and they are always living fully in the moment .

How many humans live fully in the present moment? Why do so many people seem fixated on the past or worried about the future? Do our many clocks and time constraints drive this?

So many questions but not many answers on this topic. But what can I expect when I seated at the Tea-Party table in the Mad Hatter House (a cool AirBnB in Flagstaff, Arizona)?

“We are all quite Mad here” it says on the wall- plus “ It’s always tea time”.

Hopefully you will find more time for creativity and fun in this life.

After all , we don’t always know what time it is.

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Solving for X

As a proud member of Generation X, I sat in a café at Hotel V in Amsterdam and pondered the meaning of the red, black and white XXX flags I kept seeing on the boats and buildings of the beautifully damp city.   I asked the Dutch waitress (probably Gen Z) what the significance of the 3 Xs was, and she said she didn’t know but she came back 20 minutes later to explain that it represented the three values of Amsterdam- Valiant, Steadfast and Compassionate.

Flags flying at Hotel in Amsterdam

After doing more research on the topic, I learned that the Xs are taken from the coat of arms of Amsterdam which consists of red shield with three silver (white) St. Andrew’s crosses on a black stripe, the imperial crown of Austria, two golden lions and the motto of the city– Heldhaftig (heroic), Vastberaden (resolute), Barmhartig (merciful).

So the mystery was solved and I was happy to know that the triple Xs didn’t represent the infamous red-light district of Amsterdam!

The letter X has been on my mind lately and certainty front and center in the news as Elon Musk boldly rebranded the company Twitter to X.  Mr. Musk even erected a huge, white light X sign on the top of the HQ building in San Francisco, which the city ordered him to remove within 3 days.   

The future of X is unknown but it’s eXciting nonetheless.

Other reasons I’ve been interested in all things X lately are:

1) the generational differences and challenges among Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Zers.

2) the focus of the biology of female sex chromosomes XX in the context of Transgender ideology and the Save Women Sports movement.

 3) the many symbolic, mysterious and seemingly opposite meanings:  harmony and balance, censorship and porn, toxicity and error, and death and rebirth.

What does it all mean?

As an eager student in 8th grade Algebra class, I was always excited when I would “solve for X”.  I loved setting up the equations and writing out the values of the known variables.  The challenge was a fun puzzle that made sense to me.

As a driven IT professional and sci-fi nerd in the 1990s, I was a super fan of the X-Files and even changed my hairstyle and color to emulate Agent Scully.

As a curious traveler and writer, I marvel at the rich history and meaning in the Old World’s art, flags, and symbols.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

X marks the spot of the buried treasure and is clearly the Most Powerful Letter in the alphabet. Its countless meanings in the areas of science, algebra, sports, astronomy and spirituality. Symbolizing Danger, a Kiss, a Strike, the Unknown, Death, Transcendence, Poison, Sex, and Rejection– this letter is amazingly mystifying.

There is so much more to share on this topic, but I like to keep my blogs short, so I’ll end with this.

As an inquisitive member of Generation X, I feel more affinity than ever to the extraordinary letter X.  People born between the years 1965 and 1980 tend not to want to be defined and don’t like labels (especially “latchkey kids”).  I do agree that most Gen Xer are independent, resourceful, and flexible. Plus, my generation inspired the incredible series Stranger Things.  

While I don’t think I’ve Solved for X in this brief article, I have exposed more of its significance and history.

I encourage you to explore more on the magical meaning of X and perhaps you can solve for it.

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Birds, Words and Green Trees

Every time I spend a few days away from home in a house surrounded by green trees, I get the urge to write. I’m not sure if it’s the clean air, the amazing views or the lack of distractions that prompts my literary desire to share my thoughts with you but here I go.

It could be the fact that I’m staying in a charming AirBnB in Prescott, AZ with my husband Steve and the owners from France have an amazing collection of books. Our bibliophile hosts feel like family to me as I view the many family photos on the white walls. I can feel the love and joy they get from cooking and sharing meals with their children and their friends.

As a recent and neophyte author, I have an immense appreciation for prolific and complex writers like Tom Clancy, Dan Brown and Michael Crichton. The main wall in the master bedroom has a large bookcase filled with pages of an adventure and intrigue. I could feel the emotion emanating from the titles on the spines.

So what is my story to share with you? Why would you be interested in my thoughts and experiences as I type these words from a wooden deck over looking the city of Prescott?

A large hawk just landed on top of a telephone pole about 50 meters from me. He hung our and watched me for a while and then flew off. Sometimes I wish I could be weightless and fly.

The morning air is clean and cool and crisp. My hands are getting cold as I type so I just grabbed my large, white ceramic mug of hot green tea and took a healthy sip. I look up again at the baby blue sky, the green and brown mountain horizon and feel a sense of serenity and gratitude. I feel happy to be able to share my thoughts and photos of this lovely place.

I feel connected with the trees and the birds and it brings me comfort and relief. I feel connected to the warm family that owns this home and as a result my own family in New Jersey is close in my heart and mind. I miss them dearly and look forward to my trip to see them in a few weeks.

The elevation of this property is 5,790 ft and I’m a facing due west at 270 degrees. My mind and senses are open to new input and information and I’m happy to chronicle my journey and share it with you.

I hope you have enjoyed my short and simple story of birds, words and green trees from Arizona.

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Seeing It

What is the reality you most need to acknowledge?

Sitting in a stark, bare-walled apartment with most of my possessions packed in boxes  Churchstaircasehelped clarify my reality last month.  The lack of distractions (no TV, no pictures, no knick knacks) enabled me to focus on what is important and clearly see the challenge (and the monster puzzle) at hand.

Yes, I’m moving again for the 21st time since I graduated college but this time is different since I did most of the packing on the weekends after going to yoga class. These weekly treks to Yoga Yoga in North Austin were not just any class. They were inspirational and dare I say, life changing. The two instructors, Lisa and Kimberly are amazing examples of strong, grounded woman and they helped me more than they know.

When the dreaded day came and I needed to pack the kitchen, I had an exciting new angle and attitude about it.

If you want to resolve something- you have to look at it… really look at it. These were the wise words I heard from Lisa. I was reminded to see things again for the first time, like a beginner entering a yoga pose.

A camera workshop I recently attended in Bastrop, TX, taught me to step back and look at the big picture and to zoom in closely to see important details.

All of the ideas that had been swirling around in my head came together with a simple, yet brilliant principle- “The Oz Principle” to be exact. This book by Roger Connor, Tom Smith and Craig Hickman was introduced to me at work this year and provided simple yet elegant steps to accountability. Like following the yellow brick road to get to the Emerald City, you put one foot in front of the other on and take the following steps:

  • See It
  • Own It
  • Solve It
  • Do it

It coalesced for me in my barren Austin apartment when I focused (no pun intended) on the See It part. I also took out my camera to document the process so I could share it with you in this blog.

SteveNewCameraKenosha2013

Before I dove right into fixing and solving my problem at hand, I took a breath and a step back and truly viewed the challenge at hand.  What was I dealing with?

What was my challenge that hot and swampy day in the Austin apartment?

I had the dreaded and monumental task of packing the kitchen for an out of state move. Anyone who has moved before knows the feeling that this undertaking brings up and I’m reaching for my Tums just thinking about it.

As I stood back in the small kitchen space of the apartment, I decided that this time would be different. This time I would solve my problem more efficiently and effectively. This time I would see it before I would solve it. I would solve it before I jumped into action to do it.

For my kitchen-packing project, I also used my Scrum Master training to break down the enormous undertaking into smaller, more digestible chunks.

KitchenPacking2

For fun and because I’m a Project Manager geek, I documented the steps of my exciting, new packing process and have outlined them below.

Here are the steps for quick and easy kitchen packing:

  1. Empty 1 or 2 shelves or cabinets at time and put everything out on the counter or table.
  2. Look, assess and mentally inventory what you have and how many boxes you’ll need.
  3. Determine what goes together from a packing perspective and physically group them together.
  4. Line up your empty boxes.
  5. Pack grouped items into the same box until it is full.
  6. Repeat steps 2-5 for remaining items on the counter.
  7. Once the table or counter is clear, go back to step 1 and empty out another cabinet or shelf and begin the Look and Inventory process again ( step 2).

It was like solving a big puzzle and I had fun with it.

Seeing it help me in this endeavor because I was able to take a step back and truly assess what I was dealing with before I acted to fix the problem.

Seeing the reality in front of you clearly and honestly without filters is one of the most difficult things to do since we all have our internal biases and frames of reference.

So while you may not be packing soon for a move across the country, you will be faced with some daunting and complex challenges ( I like to call them puzzles) in the coming weeks or months.  Problems are part of life and it sure is nice when we have better tools and techniques for clarifying and resolving them.

The light bulb went off when I realized that this concept of “Putting everything out on the counter” and Seeing It could be applied to many other areas of my life.

elephantinroom

I guess it’s like dealing with the elephant in the room.  You have to 1) acknowledge that you have an elephant ( or a smelly fish) present, 2) truly see the size and nature of the elephant and 3) honestly assess it and see the reality of the situation.

Viewing the puzzle from various angles and sides is also helpful.  The back side of the elephant  gives you a much different perspective that just seeing the trunk or the leg.

 

So what is the reality you most need to acknowledge?

What puzzle/obstacle/opportunity are you ready to see clearly before you jump right in to solving?

Remember the Oz Principle of Seeing It, Owning It, Solving It and Doing It.

For when Dorothy finally arrived at the beautiful Emerald City to see the Wizard, she had to draw back the curtain to see the true situation before she was able to get back home.

 

 

 

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Diamonds in Taos, My Brillant Friends

The rain passed and the sun shone brightly on our annual girlfriends weekend adventure. Like the venerable Taos Pueblo, our friendships are earthy, authentic, stable and grounded.

Our relationships are also like diamonds. They have clarity, they are clear and they are bright.

TaosPuebloLReidt.jpg

I cherish these trips more and more each year and appreciate the gifts they bring.

A treasure trove of experience and exploration, these adventures are authentic and restorative as my friends give me perspective, advice and opinions.

We hike, we eat, we share, we dream.

We adjust each other as we stretch and help perfect yoga poses.

We soak in warm tubs and openly discuss whatever if on our minds.

taoshikegroupsit

These friendships are enduring (not the “friend-for-a-season, friend-for-a-reason” variety so common today).

My friends are precious gems and will be there for the duration.

Our trips are real and pure with limited use of texting and iPhones at the table during meals, limited talk of news we can’t control, no gossip and no drama.

We talk, we discuss, we debate and we look directly into each other’s eyes. We have true connections with wonderful things like nuance and non-verbal expressions.

We appreciate our freedoms and the exquisiteness of the land and reflect on the beauty of our brilliant friendships.

Like diamonds, I treasure the moments we spend together. I treasure these women like the precious gems that they are.

taosgroup2016

Tabby, the Ruby, whose high energy and sense of adventure guides us to the next exciting destination.

Nancy, the Pearl, whose wisdom and inner strength shines through the tough journeys of life.

Clarissa, the Sapphire, whose creative expression quietly brings joy, peace and beauty to those around her.

I have an affinity for the Peridot, which has been long considered to be an aid to friendship by bringing optimism and good cheer.

So I lift my glass to you my brilliant friends and say “Thank You!” for your kindness, support and wonderful company.

Thank you for shining brightly on whatever location we venture to.